Cheryl D. Orr

Orr chairs Drinker Biddle's national labor and employment group and juggles about 15 wage and hour class actions per year. She worked on 18 class actions in the past year.

Two of those cases were on behalf of CorePower Yoga LLC, a Colorado company with locations in California.

One of the cases, Walsh v. CorePower Yoga LLC, 3:16-cv-05610 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 3, 2016), was an unpaid wage litigation brought by a class of janitorial employees who allege they were misclassified as independent contractors.

The case included forced patronage claims by a subsection of the class that is specific to California. Forced patronage claims stem from a California law that precludes companies from requiring employees to purchase some of their own company's products or services as a term of employment.

Orr said she got a settlement for less than 10 percent of the plaintiff's exposure calculations. A hearing for final approval will be held in June.

Orr is handling another case that was filed on behalf of all instructors at the company, alleging unpaid wages, overtime and a lack of meal and rest breaks.

"As its business model has evolved, we have worked with its Colorado-based legal team to adapt to the always-challenging California wage and hour landscape," she said. "You don't wear a suit when you visit them!"

Orr represented BMW of North America LLC in a case brought against a subsidiary, DriveNow, which is focused on electric car sharing. That case included claims that drivers were misclassified as independent contractors.

"We settled with the representative group for low six figures, significantly below damages calculations by opposing counsel," she said.

— Joshua Sebold